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Young Stars Leaving the Washington Post
Losses are plaguing the Post as the newspaper merges its print and online operations.
By
Harry Jaffe
Published Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Post has endured the loss of lots of name brand journalists, both through voluntary departures (Mark Liebovich, Dafna Linzer, Jim VandeHei, John Harris, etc.) and buyouts (Richard Harrington, Steve Hunter, Tamara Jones, etc.).
But news this week that four young reporters are leaving the Post suggests a weakness at the paper’s journalistic core and raises at least two questions:
-- Can the Post keep its best young talent?
-- Is the Post botching the merger of its print and online operations?
Jose Antonio Vargas’s decision to leave the Post for the online publication Huffington Post was the most damaging loss.
“It was a personal decision,” Vargas tells The Washingtonian. “I was not unhappy at the Post.”
Vargas’s departure comes on the heels of news that technology columnist Kim Hart is switching to The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper; political writer Matthew Mosk is leaving for the Washington Times; and intern Kendra Marr has been scooped up by Politico.
Vargas, 28, came to the Post five years ago, wrote his way up through the ranks, and became the paper’s chief writer on new media and technology. He both covered new media and used it. In the aftermath of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech in 2007, Vargas contacted an eyewitness through Facebook. His reporting won him a piece of the paper’s Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote a groundbreaking series on AIDS in DC; it has become the basis of a forthcoming documentary.
In the past few months, Vargas has been at the forefront of the Post’s attempt to navigate the Internet and social media. Post Company chairman Don Graham gave him a seat at lunches to brainstorm the paper’s future.
Why did he leave?
“Arianna Huffington has given me the opportunity to build something from scratch,” he says. Vargas says he will create a new technology “vertical” that will aggregate news and features, publish original content, and include his daily blog.
Why not do it for the Post?
“Not that I couldn’t do it at the Post,” he says. “But the infrastructure and the leadership at the Post are in place. I wanted to start something brand new.”
Sounds similar to Kim Hart, who will start a blog and website on technology coverage for The Hill, which covers Congress and the federal agencies. “I am excited about the chance to create, launch and run something new,” she says.
Vargas’ decision to leave for the Huffington Post is remarkably like the departures of Jim VandeHei and John Harris for Politico in 2006. All three were rising stars at the newspaper, but the Post couldn’t keep them. The Post countered with money and promises but they left anyway. Vargas refused to say anything negative about the Post, but as with VandeHei and Harris, he came to the conclusion that he would have more success in launching something at a more agile news operation.
“I asked myself where I could have more impact,” Vargas says. “The answer was Huffington Post.”
Ironically, Vargas, Harris, and VandeHei met with former publisher Bo Jones back in 2006 to air complaints about washingtonpost.com and lobby for a more responsive internet site. They had to leave to create what they wanted to do.
Responding to questions about the departures, Post Editor Marcus Brauchli says: “In the course of things, you lose some good people, and these are all terrific folks. But you should note we've also added some fabulous talent, including Doug Jehl, Greg Jaffe, Ezra Klein.”
Sources in the newsroom now say that the Post’s effort to merge its web and print publications is going badly.
“They have blown up the newsroom,” says one reporter, “but they haven’t explained what will be next.”
According to other reporters, the merger of the newsrooms is almost complete; now the web site is under the direction of the print editors.
“It’s a step backward,” one Postie says. “The web is supposed to be quick, fast, fun, full of attitude. With the newspaper editors in control, there's a risk it might become slower, more methodical—more old school.”
And talented young writers seem to be fleeing for new schools—or different ones.
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Froomkin is gone? Good riddance! Why was he dismissed? Was he throwing his man-bra on the stage too many times during press briefings in the Obama White House?
Posted by: Conservative, Jul 26, 2009 09:13:07 AM
==============================================
Froomkin was a 1-trick pony. He was really good at portraying all activities of the Bush Administration appear as twisted and evil. But that’s all he knew how to do. Once President Bush left office, I waited to see if he had another trick but he didn’t. His Obama-I-Love-You columns were generic and not special and his I-Still-Hate-George-Bush columns were becoming less and less relevant.
Posted by: ZZim, Aug 03, 2009 10:45:59 AM
if this is about the print and web not merging well, you’ve missed the point. it seems that all other media has written about the exodus of the web team. seems if the post is focused on where media is heading they should be worried about losing that group more than anything else. why was vargas at the meetings for the future of media. just cause you cover it doesn’t mean you understand it. seems that point alone points out what’s wrong with the post attitude toward its web staff.
Posted by: missing the point, Jul 29, 2009 04:36:39 PM
The print takeover has blown up the entire Web newsroom and all the innovation that went with that newsroom. So much for the Don Graham attitude that the print side needed to be more like the Web. Add to the list posted above: Amanda Zamora to Huffington Post and Allyson Hurt to NPR. And the few good truly digital folks left are all being given demotions and looking for jobs elsewhere. There’s no question, this is a place that’s running backwards.
Posted by: anonymous, Jul 28, 2009 07:22:32 AM
Froomkin is gone? Good riddance! Why was he dismissed? Was he throwing his man-bra on the stage too many times during press briefings in the Obama White House?
Posted by: Conservative, Jul 26, 2009 09:13:07 AM
the question is not whether the paper can keep its reporting talent. it’s what’s happening to the web staff? nearly everyone with several years’ experience has left (because they can see how bad it’s going to get) or has been pushed out. and it shows. mistakes are more and more frequent on the web site, with no one to realize what’s going on.
Posted by: Anonymous, Jul 23, 2009 08:34:37 AM
I think the Huffington Post’s policy of separating unmoderated comment from moderated comment into two sections (News and Blog) is a good one. Some may prefer the fast, uninhibited responses of "News" posters; others appreciate ths fact that comment has been considered by another pair of eyes without being subject to anything like censorship.
Posted by: Candadai Tirumalai, Jul 23, 2009 06:49:44 AM
Not to mention the losses of Jim Brady, Ju-Don Roberts, Nelson Hsu, Laura Cochran, Tom Kennedy and others.
Posted by: Anonymous, Jul 23, 2009 06:16:34 AM
Whatever.
Posted by: Catman, Jul 23, 2009 05:41:31 AM
Sounds par for the course under Marcus Brauchli: While he may have convinced K. Weymouth that he helped knit together web and print ops when he was at The Wall Street Journal, the fact is he did very little in that regard. For years, the web wsj was viewed as a sort of smelly diaper to be held at arm’s length. Print reporters at WSJ who tried to create successful columns and features online were punished for doing so. Now that online is overtaking print as the primary vehicle for reaching audience, brauchli and henchman narisetti might be up the creek without a paddle. Dimissal of Froomkin does not bode well and the departure of younger staffers - who ought to be a fusty old newspaper’s life-link to contemporary readers - suggests that marcus & co are imposing wsj’s bureaucratic "stadium editing" strictures on what should be a more flexible dyanmic media venue (the web) as well as a print antecedent that ought to morph with the times
Posted by: Old wsjer, Jul 22, 2009 01:39:29 PM
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